I ordered the Elton settee couch in Jan quoted as shipping in 8-10 weeks and it still hasn't shipped from the distributor in mid-April with no idea when it will ship from the distributor. West Elm told me in mid-March it would be shipping, and then again in April. It has yet to ship. The customer service people are very nice and gave me a discount, but in the end, I want the couch and it is frustrating to have to continue to contact West Elm to get updates only to find out the ship target has moved. Also, my colleague ordered a different settee from West Elm a few weeks after I did, and they shipped her the wrong color. Again, she got a discount, but still doesn't have the right couch. She is expected to get the right couch in May some time ( more than 4 weeks after the wrong couch arrived).I will not be ordering custom-made products from West Elm again after this experience.
I ordered the Elton settee at the very beginning of March and am getting the same runaround. Everytime I call, there is a new ship date, postponed from the last ship date. They seem to have no control over their product or ability to have their product made or delivered in a standard or orderly fashion. In addition, the information that I have received from them has across the board been inconsistent and even bordering on fraudulent. I better absolutely love this product after the hassles it has taken me to get it in (if I ever do!)
Count one more furious West elm customer. I just had a delivery of the Elton setee couch after 11½ weeks (quoted 8-10 weeks) of waiting, and it was MADE WRONG! Uneven legs.. Wobbly couch. West Elm is the crappiest furniture company I have ever shopped at. Terrible service, terrible communication from staff, terrible value for your money.
@Jmattson, they may have put on the legs in correctly! I recently received my Elton Settee after 19 weeks. Mine was wobbly too. After further inspection I noticed that they installed the legs incorrectly. The two curved legs should be in the front. But mine had one of the curved legs in the back. The straight legs are slightly shorter, so the couch rocks diagonally across the curved leg axis. I called customer service and they said the legs should be removable. However, I was only able to remove the curved legs. So they are sending a "furniture medic" out to fix the problem. They should have noticed this in both the factory and and the distro center. Its quite telling that they are seriously lacking attention to detail, when I removed the curved leg in back and noticed that it was labeled "RF" (as in right front, since the other is labelled "LF").
I ordered the Lorimer sectional from West Elm at the beginning of August. My husband and I moved to southern CA on September 1 and did not receive the sectional until November. When it arrived, I was immediately disappointed with the quality of the cotton basketweave fabric and the color was off from the swatch I received. I contacted Customer Service and was on the phone with them for at least an hour. They asked me to take a photo of the sofa and send to them so they could decide if the sofa was of poor quality or not. Of course they said the sofa was fine and that I was unable to return because it's a custom order item. After arguing with the rep for 35 minutes, finally she said her supervisor would allow a return but only with a merchanidse credit. They picked up the sofa a week later and finally issued a merchandise credit so I could order another sofa. I ordered the regular Lorimer sofa in the stock fabric and color to avoid future delays. According to the website, the sofa was on backorder until the end of November. I checked my order status again and it said expected delivery of 12/09/11. I contacted Customer Service since I did not receive a call to schedule the delivery and to my dismay was told the sofa is on backorder until January 2, 2012 and I would have to wait another 1 to 3 weeks for delivery. This is beyond a joke now! We've been in our new townhouse since September 1 and stil do not have a sofa. We have guests coming for the holidays and no sofa! Thanks West Elm for making the holiday season a little more stressful! Where is their furniture manufactured?! They seem to have no control over delivery dates on sofas these days. I didn't have this problem when I ordered my first sofa from them about 4 years ago.
Their vendor is MaxHome [protected]. I have been lied to about the delivery of my Chester sofa several times, and am now being told it is just now in production. I called MaxHome directly and they would not tell me anything about my order, but did say they are not backed up (supposedly). I will never order from West Elm again.
Mine is even worst! I'm gonna sue them...I'm serious! This is the worst company on the planet! I ordered Bliss Chair in September (it's December in 4 days) and found out today that they marked it as shipped in November and billed my card although I have never received my order. How can you bill someone and not deliver the order!?!?!? I'm so angry!
In case anyone was wondering things haven't improved in [protected]. Twice I have ordered items in the West Elm store in Santa Monica and been told by a cheerful sales associate that the items were in stock and would be shipped in the next week. Nope. I followed up on the website after a telephone call proved worthless and was informed the items were back-ordered but provided a new delivery date a month later. After the delivery date had come and gone I checked with the website - no change in the delivery date - so I contacted customer service and was cheerfully advised that the items would be shipped for another 10 weeks. When I complained I was thanked for my complaint and told my complaint would be routed to their corporate office so they could develop strategies to better serve their customers. Seriously? So all I have to show for my $3, 500 is a potential delivery date in the distant future. But at least that doesn't stop them from sending me 3 emails a day with special offers.
My advice is STAY CLEAR of West Elm unless you can physically carry out the item that day.